The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday overwhelmingly won the local body polls held for the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC), albeit with a setback in Ward no.16. This ward, which includes the Jangleshwar area of Rajkot near the Aji riverbank that witnessed large-scale demolitions in February this year, went entirely to the Congress. The addition of Ward no.16 helped the Congress improve its tally from four to seven seats in the RMC, as it retained three of the four seats in Ward no.15. By Tuesday evening, the final tally in Rajkot, which has 72 seats across its 18 wards, stood at 65 seats with the BJP, which included 16 panels, and seven seats with the Congress. The demolitions in Jangleshwar saw RMC clearing 1,489 “illegally constructed” properties near the Aji riverbed and on an adjoining Town Planning (TP) road. On February 25, RMC said it cleared 33,750 square metres of land on the TP Road and 55,000 square metres of land in the Aji riverbed area, the combined worth of which was Rs 350 crore.…